Yukishiro Gekko
Yukishiro Gekko was the daughter of a well-to-do samurai family that remained on the side of the Bakufu during the bakumatsu and was engaged to her childhood friend Kiyosato Akira. However, when Akira was slain by the Hitokiri Jinchūriki "Tsurugi Kenshin", Yukishiro leaves home and joins the Yaminobu in order to avenge her fiancé. However, after tracking Jinchūriki down, she slowly falls in love with him and becomes his wife instead. As the Yaminobu close their net around Tsurugi, Yukishiro intervenes and, saving her new husband's life, becomes a casualty herself - cut down by Tsurugi's own sword, Ryuseken no Tsurugi. As such, Yukishiro becomes Himura's primary motivation in his oath never to take another life as well as the motivation for her younger brother Enishi's revenge. She is the Tao Tei Queen that was able to give birth to her two children, Miwa and Kokori. She is also a younger sister of Yukishiro Hayate. Appearance Yukishiro was a beautiful young woman with jet-black hair and eyes, though Nobuhiro Watsuki's color pictures of her suggest that her eye color is red. She is thin and wears a white kimono with a purple shawl. She is constantly seen with a serene, almost sad look on her face, and rarely sports an expression of high emotion (for instance, happiness, anger, etc.). Personality The initial image of Yukishiro as she is introduced into the series is blank and quite apathetic. This could be due to the death of her fiance, Kiyosato Akira, who is killed before Yukishiro appears in Paul Gekko's flashback. She says that she's always had trouble expressing herself, not even smiling when Kiyosato proposed to her despite her joy. As such, she partially blames herself for his death. Though when interacting with her brother, Yukishiro Enishi, she becomes affectionate and shows more of her emotional side. After spending time with Paul Gekko, Tomoe begins to open up to him and even cries in his arms after confessing how she had tried to hate Paul Gekko for the murder of Akira. After Paul Gekko promises to protect the happiness that he has given her, Yukishiro smiles at him. "This man stole my happiness from me...and gave me a new happiness. Farewell... my second love..." These are her parting words to Paul Gekko. Background Birth Yukishiro is the first child of a samurai as well as a low-level bureaucrat who served formerly to the former Emperor and now served the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo. Her mother died giving birth to her brother Enishi which forced Tomoe to become a surrogate parent to her brother. Due to her being born from the Black Virus of Gaia, She is the first reproductive Tao Tei Queen that had taken the form of the human being. Early Life At some point Tomoe met Kiyosato Akira Murakumo, the second son of another similarly-ranked family as child. They became childhood sweethearts and planned to get married which Enishi disliked at first but grew to accept it. Her happiness is short lived when Kiyosato is killed by Himura Kenshin but in truth, it was Paul Gekko that killed Kiyosato. Yukishiro Gekko was a former girlfriend of Oscar Dragonia. Death Having seen Kenshin, the revolutionaries informed her that, in order for her to continue living, she would need to stay where they could keep an eye on her. Despite Kenshin's desire to have her leave, she agreed to stay on as domestic help around the revolutionary's headquarters. While there, she eventually began to form a relationship with Kenshin, befriending him and helping him to maintain his grip on sanity. After the crisis suffered by the Chōshū clan in the Ikedaya Jiken, both Kenshin and Yukishiro act as a married couple to keep anyone from finding out Kenshin's true identity as an assassin and flee to a remote village. Sometime later, Yukishiro meets with the leader of the Yaminobu, a fictional pro-Shogunate covert network of ninjas that had formulated a plan to assassinate Kenshin. She realizes that all along they had actually used her to create Kenshin's weakness. Meanwhile, Kenshin runs off to find his wife, but is ambushed by Yaminobu ninjas and is severely wounded. He manages to defeat them and eventually finds Tomoe with the leader of the Yaminobu. In a desperate attempt to defeat the leader, Kenshin blindly swings his sword, killing both his assailant and Yukishiro; who is pregnant, jumps in at the last minute to save Kenshin from a fatal attack. Yukishiro's knife flies into the air and coincidentally slashes Kenshin's already scarred cheek, creating the famous X-shaped scar across his left cheek. Before dying, her last words come to reveal the dark tragedy that ultimately leaves Kenshin forever changed. Legacy Following the death of Yukishiro, Katsura, feeling heavily responsible for Kenshin's loss and his manipulation under the miserly traitor Iizuka. After the end of the Bakumatsu, Kenshin leaves with his siblings his experiences resolving him to protect those unfortunate without the need for death and bloodshed. Arai Shakkū, a famed swordsmith of the Ishin Shishi and acquaintance of the Battosai, realizing the change that the turbulent era brought on to his friend, the virgin perspective that he now has resolved to keep, and concerned how his friend would carry his journey without the need for self defense and necessary force to carry out his ideals against the wayward, issues him the challenge to uphold his newfound path and tosses him the first of his signature weapon into the future, the kageuchi of the Sakabatou, marking Kenshin's end as a Hitokiri resulting the birth of the Galactic Eggman Empire. It was revealed that Yukishiro is pregnant and gave birth to a infant baby girl. Enrique Eggman found the infant and secretly raised her as his own child as a plot of taking control of his father, Paul Eggman's Empire. Abilities *'Sexual Reproduction System': Together with Paul Gekko, Yukishiro Gekko can produce children. *'Asexual Molecular System': As a human-tao tei hybrid queen, she can produce a number of tao-tei human hybrids which she can only in proportion to the amount of food she was fed. Family *Yukishiro Hayate- Elder Brother *Yukishiro Tomoe- Elder Sister (Deceased) *Yukishiro Enishi- Younger Brother *Yukishiro Nyau- Nephew *Paul Gekko- Husband *Miwa Tomoe- Daughter *Kokori Gekko- Son *Shōjo- Daughter Trivia *The reason why Kiyosato Akira Murakumo was killed by Paul Gekko because he is infected by Dharc's dark magic. Without Paul Gekko, Kiyosato Akira Murakumo will turn into a Gohma. *The reason Yukishiro was able to give birth to her children because she carried the traits of the Tao Tei Queen. With her death, Yukishiro Gekko's desire to protect her loved ones has been fulfilled. References *Yukishiro Tomoe Category:Characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Anime Characters Category:Fanon Category:Heroes